President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing with the coronavirus task force, in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Despite the ongoing crisis with the Wuhan Coronavirus wreaking havoc on our society, the American people are rallying under President Donald Trump, boosting his approval ratings to heights not seen since 2018.

According to The Hill, a Hill-HarrisX poll revealed that Trump’s approval rating is now at 50 percent:

President Trump received his highest approval rating since 2018 in a Hill-HarrisX poll released Tuesday.

Fifty percent of registered voters approved of Trump’s job performance, while 50 percent disapproved.

The last time his approval reached 50 percent or higher was August 2018, when he received 51 percent support.

This approval is, of course, split down party lines with 85 percent of Republican voters in approval and just 19 percent of Democrats approving of the job Trump is doing. Independent voters are split with 50 percent approval.

While The Hill doesn’t go into speculating as to why Trump’s approval rating is so high, and chooses instead to focus on the criticisms he’s receiving, we can accurately guess why Trump’s support is rising.

The poll was conducted on March 22-23, around the same time Democrats struck down the bipartisan stimulus package that would have propped up business and American workers. This undoubtedly soured a lot of people against the Democrats, especially as Trump is giving daily press briefings promoting the idea of the bill and giving Americans a view of light at the end of the tunnel.

The media, as well, has made it very clear that they are against Trump and are taking a different tack than he is by sensationalizing the virus. As my colleague Nick Arama reported, reporters have been trying to make it seem like the virus is out of control in the United States.

This chart of coronavirus deaths indicates that the US is doing about as badly as Iran and much worse than Japan and South Korea. https://t.co/3cbOBu1aVj

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) March 23, 2020

However, the truth is that we’re doing very well in not only containing the virus but stopping the death rate as reported by Arama:

The United States has been close to South Korea, currently the gold standard for dealing with the virus, with a mortality rate compared to diagnosed cases of around 1.4 percent as of this writing, with South Korea at 1.3 percent. The rate is likely even lower and may be below 1 percent as the experts have postulated because there are likely more cases that are undiagnosed since for most people the virus is mild. Many might not even know they have it or ever get tested. The U.S. is actually ahead of South Korea when it comes to total cases per million population, with 2 deaths per million. Iran is much worse, with 295 cases per million and 23 deaths per million.

Baker claimed we were doing as “badly as Iran.” But Iran’s death rate is 7.7 percent, ours is 1.4. That’s a huge difference in our favor.

This sensationalization and fearmongering by the media vs the President’s more optimistic outlook is likely drawing more people to his side, putting his approval rating at all-time highs.